Redemption
by PhoebeColeTurnerHalliwell
Summary: Dean is let out of Hell. Prue is let out of Heaven. Both have a purpose to surve: to help Sam and the Charmed Ones defeat Lucifer, who has risen to wreak havoc on the world. But they have both come back a little different...Prue/Dean Piper/Leo Paige/Sam.


A/N: I'm trying my hand at a crossover. I haven't really tried anything like this before, but I figured I would give it a shot. Updates for my other stories are (hopefully) coming tomorrow. Let me know what you think!

* * *

_Chapter One: Welcome Back_

The small town of Flagstaff, Arizona was quiet during the middle of the night, except for a 1967 Chevy Impala. Metallica's 'Enter Sandman' played from the stereo, but it was quiet. The driver of the car wasn't interested in listening to it, but he preferred it to silence. Silence was something he couldn't handle lately. Not since his older brother Dean was taken from him one month ago.

Sam Winchester stifled a yawn as he pulled up into the motel parking lot. He had been driving all day having just come from New Mexico. He was after a demon, but needed sleep in order to do his job. But since Ruby wasn't even back yet from locating the demon, he had some down time. Plus he knew that Dean wouldn't want him to risk his health for a demon.

Sam pushed Dean out of his mind and grabbed his bag from the passenger seat, shutting the engine off. He closed the door as quietly as he could so he wouldn't wake anyone up and locked the door. Then he made his way to the motel lobby to get a room.

He opened the squeaky door and walked up to the counter. The old man behind the counter was watching a re-run of a football game, but looked up at the sound of the door opening. When he saw Sam he stood up.

"What can I do you for?" he asked tiredly, pulling up his pants which had fallen down slightly as he had made himself comfortable in his swivel chair.

Sam ignored this and met the man's eyes. "I need a room. Do you have one?"

"Sure do. How many nights, son? One? Two?" He sounded hopeful.

"I don't know yet. I don't know how long I'll be in town. Is that okay?" Sam asked, wanting to get this over with.

The old man shrugged. "Yeah. That's fine. I'll just be needing a credit card on file."

Sam took out one of his many fake credit cards and handed it to the man. "The name's Sam Bundley."

The man nodded and wrote down the card's number, then handed it back to Sam as well as a key. "Room 114 is available. It's just down the way," he said, pointing to the row of rooms on the outskirts of the little street it was on.

Sam gave the man a weak half-smile before taking his card and the key. "Thanks."

He walked out of the lobby without a second glance at the man, who he assumed had gone back to watching his game. He got back into his car and drove for about two seconds before coming up to a parking space in front of room 114.

There were hardly any cars in the parking lot. Only about five, and none of them were around Sam's room. Not sure whether unnerved him or comforted him, he parked and locked the Impala and opened the door to his room.

As expected, it was nothing special. Just a queen sized bed, a small TV resting on top of a plain dresser and a table with two chairs by the window. He put his bag on the floor by his feet and collapsed on the bed, falling asleep instantly.

When Sam awoke the next morning, the sunlight was streaming into the room, nearly blinding him when he opened his eyes. Putting his hand to his forehead to shield his sight, he made his way off the bed and over to the room, closing the blinds that he hadn't remembered opening.

"Morning, Sam," a familiar voice said from behind him.

He whirled around to come face to face with Ruby. She was standing by the TV, her arms crossed as usual.

"How'd you get in?" he asked as he yawned.

Ruby scoffed. "Please. You should be more concerned with _what_ I'm doing in here," she said, sitting down on the bed.

Sam sat down at the table, the events of the last couple of days rushing back to him. "Do you know where the demon is?" he asked.

"That's the thing. I can't really sense a demon. But there is definitely something out there. Something...supernatural," Ruby said.

Sam suppressed a sigh. "So what is it?"

Ruby raised an eyebrow. "Didn't you just hear what I said? I don't know what's out there. But it has to be something really powerful if I can't sense what it is."

"But what about that demon back in New Mexico? I followed it here," Sam pointed out, feeling too tired to deal with this.

Ruby shrugged. "I don't know. You must have lost him along the way because he isn't here anymore."

"WHAT?" Sam thundered, standing up. He crossed the room to Ruby, wanting more than anything to take his rage out on the demon, but he couldn't. Ruby had helped him and had risked her life trying to save Dean from hell. And she was turning out to be a true asset and friend. So he didn't.

Ruby didn't flinch, though she backed away considerably before speaking again. "Look. This demon is difficult to track. And there has been a wave of strange supernatural activity lately. So excuse me if I'm having trouble differentiating!" she snapped, glaring at the younger Winchester brother.

But Sam didn't hear anything beyond the her first three sentences. "What do you mean a wave of strange supernatural activity?"

"Are you kidding? A record number of demons? Witches, tricksters, a rash of unexplainable deaths? Tell me you've noticed at least _some _of this?" Ruby asked, looking at Sam with a mixture of disbelief and annoyance.

Sam shrugged. "My mind has been...focused on other things."

"Dean, perhaps?" she asked.

Sam glared at her. "There is a way to save him, Ruby. And this demon was our best shot!"

"Sam, when are you going to wake up and realize that there is no saving Dean? He's in hell, and you of all people should know that you can't pull anyone away from that," Ruby threw back, giving Sam a hard look.

Sam gaped at her. "How can you be so insensitive?"

Ruby scoffed and started pacing the room. She was getting impatient. "It's the only way to get you to move on." The her expression softened. "Look, for what it's worth, I feel bad that I couldn't save him, and that's saying a lot coming from a demon. But it's not healthy for you to keep going on this vengeance kick. It's only going to get you killed sooner, and you need to be on your best game for what's to come."

Sam intentionally avoided looking at her and turned his attention to the shaded window instead. "And what exactly is coming, Ruby?" he snapped.

"I don't know. But it's serious. That's why we can't waste time talking about what we can't change. The sooner we get whatever is out there, the sooner you can move on."

Sam knew Ruby had a point, but he didn't want to admit it to himself. "I'm going to change and then get something to eat. Then I'll walk around this town and see if I can find anything supernatural going on. Can you try harder at finding out what exactly we're looking for?"

Ruby nodded. "I'll find you when I have an update." Then she opened the room door and disappeared.

And that was when it happened.

A gust of wind erupted by the door, and at first Sam thought it was the weather outside, but when he managed to get the door closed and it was still continuing, he knew it was something else.

Something much more sinister.

_At least this saves me time in trying to find out what exactly I'm looking for, _Sam thought to himself as he brought his arm up protectively to his eyes, still wanting to watch and find out who or what was coming out of the wind.

It was the last person he expected to find.

His older brother, Dean, landed on the floor in one quick motion. He was shirtless and there were a couple cuts on his arms and back. Sam assumed there were more on other parts of his body, but this arms and back was all he could see from his position. As quickly as it came, the wind was gone.

"What...Dean?" Sam asked, his voice barely above a whisper.

He wasn't expecting Dean to answer him, assuming him to be unconscious or worse, but to his surprise Dean coughed and tried sitting up.

"S-Sam?" he asked weakly.

Sam's heart twitched, hating how weak his brother sounded...so defeated.

"I'm here, Dean." Sam knelt down and touched a hand to his shoulder, wanting Dean to know that he was here, just in case he hadn't already seen him.

Dean flinched, and Sam quickly pulled his hand away. He tried again a second later.

"Dean? It's me. I'm not going to hurt you...I'm just going to see if you're okay," he said, hating having to treat his brother like a child.

But, again to his surprise, Dean whipped around to face him. His face looked remarkably unscathed as he said, "We have to find the Halliwell sisters. Right now!"

* * *

Back in San Francisco, the streets were nearly empty as unusual fog hid the city in its path. It was so thick that it was impossible to see, and hard to breathe. As a result, the Charmed Ones were in the manor, trying to amuse themselves with unexpected downtime.

Piper, since she was unable to open P3, was parked in front of the TV, waiting for an update on the fog to see if she could still salvage this night. It wasn't looking that way, though.

"The fog will most likely stay with us for the rest of the night and throughout the weekend. We would advise for everyone to stay off the roads, but if you have to drive, be especially careful," the weather woman was saying.

"Ugh," Piper groaned loudly. "Even the heavens are against us."

"What are you going on about?" Paige asked as she came into the living room.

"The weather. It's unnatural," Piper complained, shutting the television off and leaning her head down against the pillows on the sofa.

Paige took a seat on the armchair across from her and smiled in amusement. "Well, I for one, have always rather enjoyed fog. It's beautiful in its own way."

Piper snorted. "There is nothing beautiful about glorified clouds surrounding the city and making it impossible for us to carry out our everyday lives."

"Not me! I can just orb away," Paige bragged, throwing her arms up in a dramatic gesture.

"Well, the rest of us can't. Why are you in such a good mood anyway?" Piper asked, deliberately changing the subject.

"I don't know. I just have this feeling and it won't go away," Paige replied, her words coming out slower in her obvious discomfort.

"Really? What about?"

"I don't know. That's the problem. But it feels big, you know? Like our lives are about to change in a big way."

"Well," Piper mused, "that doesn't really sound good. Have you talked to Leo about it?"

Paige shook her head. "It's just barely happened. I don't think it's anything to worry about, though. No need to go to Leo." She waved it off and smiled, trying to cover up her discomfort.

But Piper wasn't convinced. "Paige, you've been getting these feelings a lot lately. It started with the titans, and now this? You should go to Leo and at least bring it to his attention just in case it's something we need to worry about."

At that moment the sound of the front door opening and slamming shut filled the room. "Oh my god, it is awful out there!" Phoebe stated as she stomped into the living room, her clothes damp from the moisture the fog was giving off.

"At least you got here okay. Elise doesn't honestly expect you to keep going to work in this weather, does she?" Piper asked.

Phoebe went to sit beside Piper. "Well, I'm not going back out there until this damn fog clears up whether she likes it or not," she stated firmly, then turned to her sisters. "No demons have attacked, have they?"

"No. Why would you think that?" Piper asked.

"You guys just have this look...like something's going on. What's up?" Phoebe asked, turning mainly to Paige.

"Nothing!" Paige answered quickly. Piper shot her a look, and Paige surrendered.

"Fine, but it's not anything important. I have this feeling that something big is going to happen."

Phoebe looked to Piper to elaborate, but her older sister merely shrugged. Phoebe turned back to Paige.

"A feeling? About what?"

"I don't know, and I don't think it's anything to worry about."

"Well Paige, feelings like these don't just go away," Phoebe pointed out obviously.

"Are you guys actually _looking _for trouble now?" Paige countered, looking sick of talking about this.

"No, of course not. But we don't need any surprises, especially with this awful weather. We need to be careful," Piper replied, standing up.

Before their eyes Leo orbed in, and he looked concerned. "Something's going on."

"You mean besides this weather?" Phoebe asked, leaning back on the sofa.

"Well, the Elders think it has something to do with something beyond their control, but I was talking about something much bigger," Leo stated, starting to pace the room.

Piper watched him, knowing that Leo only did that when he was truly worried. "What could possibly be bigger than the Elders?" she asked, and judging from Phoebe and Paige's matching concerned looks, Piper knew that they were thinking the same thing.

Leo hesitated before answering. "They...uh, aren't really sure. But the lack of demonic activity tells us that something is brewing, and we have to watch out for it."

"That probably explains my weird feelings," Paige continued.

Leo considered this. "If you're getting strong senses about something it could turn out to be important. Stick with it. We need to be prepared, especially if it's something even the Elders can't control."

This last sentence hung in the air, and Piper felt the tension in the air like a hand around her neck. It wouldn't go away.

"Well, I'd feel better if you stayed here. If the Elders don't know what's going on then they're pretty much useless to us," Piper said as she stood up.

"Should we consult the book?" Phoebe asked, going into worried mode.

"You can, but it probably won't turn up anything," Leo answered, looking grave.

"Well, it beats sitting around here waiting for the ball to drop." Phoebe followed Piper's lead and stood up. She went over to Paige and took her arm, pulling her up as well. "You're coming with me."

"Why?"

"Because you're the one getting the weird vibes. If there does happen to be something in the Book of Shadows, you'd probably know. The more we're prepared, the better off we'll be," Phoebe explained.

They went upstairs, leaving Piper and Leo alone in the living room. Piper regarded Leo for a moment. Leo smiled as he watched her.

"What?" he asked.

"I don't know. This all just seems a little sudden to me," she said, sitting back down on the sofa.

"What do you mean?"

Piper shrugged, not exactly sure how to explain it. "Well, a minute ago we were stuck in the house with nothing to do because of all the fog. And now the Elders and Paige sense a big problem but can't do anything about it? And we can't prepare for it because there isn't anything in the Book of Shadows?"

"Well, that's what your sisters are doing, seeing if there _is _anything. You know that some entries are added as you need them," Leo replied as he began stroking her back.

"That just seems too easy. If whatever this thing is is beyond the Elders what makes you think it'll even be _in _the book?"

Leo didn't get a chance to answer because at that moment a scream came from the attic.

"Piper! Leo!" Phoebe called, sounding frantic.

Piper and Leo glanced at each other before shooting up off the couch and racing upstairs.

When they reached the attic, they were immediately attacked by a gust of wind strong enough to be considered a small tornado. Piper had to hold on to the door panel just to stay on her feet.

"What the hell is going on?" she cried to Leo, but she knew he couldn't hear her.

Her eyes were forced shut because of the intensity of the wind, but she managed to see a figure emerge from the wind. It was a woman, and she was wearing a simple white robe. Her long black hair was staying still despite the wind, and her back was turned to Piper. But Piper didn't need to see her face to know who she was.

The wind was gone soon after, and Piper stumbled to stay on her feet. She saw out of the corner of her eye that Leo, Phoebe, and Paige had all done the same thing.

"What am I doing here?" the woman asked, turning to face Piper, confusion etched on her all-too familiar face.

"That's a good question...Prue."


End file.
